Petition asks Port Angeles to reconsider fluoridation action

PORT ANGELES — A group fighting to keep fluoride out of the city’s water system hopes to deliver at least 1,000 petition signatures asking the City Council to reconsider its decision to add the chemical supported by local dentists.

“We hope to present our petition to City Council later in the month. We realize that because of the city charter that the initiative and referendum system is not available to us,” Jesse C. Wilson, president of Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, said of the process that allows registered voters to petition for legal changes in city law.

Wilson said all 115 of his group members have been gathering petition signatures for about a month.

The group recently raised $1,000 at a parking lot fund-raiser at The Bushwhacker restaurant in Port Angeles.

It raised $3,000 in one night in June to hire an attorney to draft a letter to the city of Port Angeles.

“The city says it’s a done deal, but as far as we’re concerned it’s not a done deal,” Wilson said Sunday, adding that council elections are coming this fall.